This website aims to introduce beginners to the core repertoire of classical music. We aim to make it easy to take advantage of live concerts happening across London every day of the week. And hear the music being performed by some of the world's finest orchestras, solists, and conductors, in a variety of brilliant venues. Since you can't be at a concert all the time, we've included Spotify and YouTube links to all the music. Additionally, if you can't join us at one of our planned attendance concerts (join us by joining the website - its free! ) we've made it simple to find the next live performance for each piece through the services of the wonderful Bachtrack website. Jeremy. Founder's New Year Resolution "25 concerts in 52 weeks"
Join us by looking at our Events pages. and then read our concert reports. Its all happending in London this year
Classic Music starter, "we know nothing"
We should keep things simple so the aim was 12 concerts in 12 months then it was, well, 12 symphonies, 12 concertos, 12 sonatas and 12 string quartets in 12 months. Now its 12 films, 12 theatres and 12 art displays as well. Actually its surprisingly easy to pack all this in - after all there are 365 days in a year and you can go to 1 ,2 or even 3 events in one day. Remember poring over the London Film catalogue and trying to get round as many as possible in the 80s? Anyway its all there for the taking
We have ( should I say we when its really "I" anyway I'm hoping it iwll be we, started small simple and totlaly clueless about the core classical 'oevre' . Looking at various sources I came up with the most popular symphonies and there are 15 of them. Listed on the symphonies listening page , they now and a heart shaped 'hit list' symbol toshow they are 'special',in the core group of most popular works. As we experience more music either at concerts or on the radio we will add more works, some with hearts and some without.Lists of works can be called up from the listings page and topof page filters employed to show just teh 'hit list' works or those of a specific composer. Works are generally listed by date of composition which is also shown
As we have progressed its been possible to start to explore the wider aspects of the music. looking for references to where and when it was written and what was happening in the world while it was written. The setting of the composition is one of the great aspects of learning about the music - Betthoven was writing his 5th Piano concerto as Napoleon was bombarding Vienna, and yuo can hear that. So that leads us on to Geography too - We will attempt to draw some maps of composers life journeys and its relatively easy to visit the 'core' cities too . eg using Inter-rail passes (Thank you Helen!)
My ultimate ambition is to understand the music in terms of its classical 'sonata' form ( must be one of the most confusing terms ) But the idea that one theme develops into another with all sorts of technical words to describe the key changes and the development and the xx etc is as yet beyond me. Ihave bought some complete scores and this is revelatory - to see the opeing of Beethovens 5th symphony exposed / revealed in just 2 sets of 4 notes separated by just one note down teh stave is incredible. My aim is to complete the connections between the audio, the written music and the written descriptions of the music that I have not foudn anyone else doing yet. You tube perhaps comes closest with its moving staves and I have included links to the stave based music and the MP3 files where time allows.
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The Performers
Dont forget the musicians. As we move from the knowledge of the core music we realise its the performers that keep it alive and work so hard to present these amazing works. We have listed all the performers we have seen or look forward to seeing. inevitably its pianists, violinists and conductors who take centre stage but we have seen two solo clarinet players this year and several string quartets too!
The Venues
We maybe take it for granted that London has some fabulous concert venues. Often said that living in London means you take Londons cultural offerings for granted and never actually go to any of the events whereas living in for example Cardiff when the Opera arrives on tour everyone makes a point of going and end up seeing more than we do bang in the middle of London . Year 2025 is the year of MUSIC for myself and I am to be there !
What have we learnt
The best concerts get booked up 2 to 3 months in advance. It pays tojoin the big venues membership schemes to use the members bars and to get early access tothe best performances.
look at our hit lists and make a plan of which pieces you want to see live. Use Bach tack or go direct to your chosen venue to book tickets ahead.
Make a plan that extends for 12 months - we are planning a planner too !
in the meantime feel free to join us at concerts too !
Rhythms in concerts
Musical vocab
Reading sheet music
What have we learnt - 3
Listen to the music before going to the concert. It really helps to have identified the main themes in advance.
Dont worry if you miss a lot of the concert on first viewing It requires several goes to really get familiar with the music and then the concerts become more enjoyable with the sense of expectation and recognition of the themes and 'motifs'
look at our in depth music dissections ! ( Coming one day if we ever find time to do them )
